September 29, 2009

This Thursday, October 1, at the Royal Geographic Society in London there will be a charity gala evening sponsored by ARCA and Venice in Peril. The two featured speakers are ARCA Director Noah Charney and former ARCA Trustee and current Head of Scotland Yard's Arts and Antiques Division, Vernon Rapley. Charney will be discussing his next non-fiction book, entitled "Stealing the Mystic Lamb: the True History of the World's Most Frequently Stolen Masterpiece" and Rapley will discuss art policing, fakes, and forgeries in London. Tickets support the charity Venice in Peril, which protects Venetian monuments. For tickets, please write to tamara.rissogill@veniceinperil.org

September 27, 2009

The Application (Due 15 Dec. 2009) and Prospectus for the 2010 Postgraduate Program in International Art Crime Studies are now available.

Once again, ARCA presents the first organized postgraduate program in International Art Crime Studies to be held June 1 - August 13. This program will provide in-depth instruction in a wide variety of theoretical and practical elements of art crime: its history, its nature, its impact, and what can be done to curb it. Courses are taught by international experts, in the beautiful setting of Umbria, Italy. Topics include art history and the art trade, museums and conservation, art security and policing, criminology and criminal investigation, law and policy, and the study of art theft, antiquities looting, war looting, forgery and deception, vandalism, and cultural heritage protection throughout history and around the world. It is the idea program for art police and security professionals, art lawyers, insurers, and curators, members of the art trade and post-graduate students of criminology, law, security studies, sociology, art history, archaeology, and history.

September 13, 2009

On the night of September 2 a multi-million dollar collection of prints by Andy Warhol, from his so-called “Athlete’s Series,” were stolen from the LA home of collector Robert L. Weisman.The theft is knowledgeably commented upon by ARCA staff member Mark Durney in his blog, Art Theft Central.

There is almost no market, black or otherwise, for stolen art as recognizable as these Warhols, even though they are prints, and therefore multiple copies exist.So, what is the most likely outcome of the situation?There have been so few thefts commissioned by criminal art collectors that they represent a negligible percentage, and the least likely scenario of all.Most likely in this case is a left for ransom, demanding payment either of the theft victim or their insurer.In a case such as this, in which a generous reward has been offered, then no ransom demand is needed.The most probable outcome of this situation is that a “well-meaning” informant will call in a lead that will bring police to the stolen art.Once the art is recovered, the good samaritan will be paid the reward.Likely in cases such as this, the call that leads to the recovery of the art will come from a colleague of the thieves.The reward will therefore be distributed among the thieves via the informant.For a few hours’ legwork, the thieves will have stolen art, abandoned it, had a colleague call in the location to the police, retrieve the reward, and pocket it.Stealing art simply for the reward money may seem like a bad deal for the thieves—the art is, after all, worth many times more than the reward.But one must think of it not as the difference between the actual value of the art and the $1 million reward, but between what the thieves had before the theft (nothing) and the reward money.Not bad for a day’s work.Of course, offering a reward is the best way to ensure that stolen art will be returned to its owner.But in doing so, there is a significant risk that the reward will make its way into the hands of the thieves.And the owner must be very careful to better secure their collection once it is back in their hands, as historic precedent suggests that stolen and returned art is at a very high risk to be stolen again, now that the thieves have learned that art theft pays handsomely.

ARCA was consulted in a recent article for UK newspaper, The Independent on Sunday, regarding this case. To read the article, please see: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/a-swag-bag-of-warhol-1786631.html

September 11, 2009

The following article on Spanish map and manuscript thefts has been contributed to ARCAblog by Juan José Prieto Gutiérrez of Biblioteca de la Facultad de Derecho, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. An English translation will follow shortly.